Fifth Avenue Grill, Delray Beach FL

The Delray Beach dining scene isn’t just limited to Atlantic Ave. There are many fine restaurants “off the ave” that are worth exploring. One such establishment came highly recommended to your reviewer – The Fifth Avenue Grill.

Located on Federal, “The Fifth” is a steakhouse less the pretentiousness that accompanies places like Morton’s or Abe and Louie’s. Inside, you’ll find plenty of wood that steakhouse designers tend to use, along with copper pots hanging from the ceiling and the typical dim lighting. There are two dining areas, a bar with several tables and the main dining room with booths and tables. On this visit, the bar area was the lively spot with the dining room only serving a few tables.

As soon as I was seated, my server brought over bread and butter and something I haven’t seen in a long time – a relish dish complete with celery, carrots, radishes, black olives and bread and butter pickle slices. It was a nice addition.

I ordered a Cosmo and a club soda, both of which arrived quickly although the Cosmo could have been colder. The martini glass it was served in was smaller than most, but it didn’t matter because my drink came with a side car that filled the glass up a second time – I joked to my server that it must have been “two for one night.”

One thing that attracted me to review The Fifth Avenue Grill, besides the prodding of my friends, was the fact that they served a deep fried filet mignon. I asked my server, who happened to be with the restaurant for over 20 years, to explain how it was prepared. He described it in detail from the seasonings used on the filet before it’s dropped into the deep fryer, to the fact that it’s not greasy and served sliced. My mind was already made up about my entree choice, but I wanted to hear more about this fried delight.

All entrees at The Fifth Avenue Grill come with a house salad and choice of potato or rice. The menu is your traditional steakhouse menu with filet, strip, porterhouse, ribs, lamb, veal, chicken and seafood.
To start off my meal, I chose a shrimp cocktail as an appetizer, the Fryed Filet with steak fries as my entree and the house salad.

Courses came out of the kitchen in a well choreographed manner, one after another, timed perfectly.

First up was the shrimp cocktail. Four large shrimp served with a cocktail sauce that could have used an infusion of horseradish. It just didn’t have enough “kick” for me. The shrimp were firm and larger than most restaurant offerings. They were served over what I would call an Asian slaw.

The house salad arrived next and was the only disappointing part of the meal. It consisted of mixed greens and tomato wedges and was served with a balsamic vinaigrette dressing. My server provided the ground pepper which was applied liberally. The disappointment came in the fact that the salad was served warm. As someone who likes a cold salad, I couldn’t eat the warm greens. When asked if everything was ok with the salad, I said I would have enjoyed it if it were chilled, my server told me “with this kind of weather, it’s hard to keep it chilled in the refrigerator.”

When the Fryed Filet arrived, my server hung around to make sure it lived up to my expectations. He was proud to point out that what I was about to take a bite into would be “the best steak you’ve ever ate.” I ordered my Fryed Filet medium rare and they nailed the temperature dead on. There wasn’t a hint of oil or grease on the filet or the plate, which I was concerned about. The deep frying added a very flavorful and crispy crust to the outside of the filet. While not the best steak I’ve ever eaten, this filet was right up there on the top of the list. The perfectly seasoned crust, the cool medium rare center and not a piece of fat to be had, made for an enjoyable meal. Along with the steak fries, the Fryed Filet was served with a side of mixed vegetables and Bearnaise sauce. I’m one of these people who believe that sauces only take away from the taste of meat, so I didn’t use the Bearnaise, but I did taste it and it was average.

After dinner I inquired about the different beer The Fifth Avenue Grill offers. No beer on tap, just bottles and their bottle list is limited.

A dessert menu was provided and on one side was a list of after dinner cocktails and the other the sweet stuff. The selections included Louisiana Bread Pudding, my choice, as well as different sundaes, Key Lime Pie, New York Style Cheesecake and more. There was even a Banana Split Sundae for $9.95 which my server told me was enough for two people.

The bread pudding came out hot and served drizzled with a warm sauce that tasted like rum spiced egg nog. Not a fan of nuts, I trudged through dessert picking them out as I went along. The slice of bread pudding was the least expensive item on the dessert menu ($4.95) but was big enough that I could not finish it.

The Fifth Avenue Grill proved to me that there indeed are good restaurants off the avenue and will now be part of my regular rotation. Their prices are a little less than the other steakhouses in the area and the service is just as good.

This is the official website of Scott Sanfilippo. Having co-founded one of the first eCommerce stores in 1994, Sanfilippo is considered one of the pioneers of the eCommerce revolution. With the launch of The Ferret Store, Sanfilippo and his partner, Joe Palko, continued to open additional eCommerce stores in the pet, lawn and garden and home accessories categories. By 2006, they had 40 eCommerce stores many of which were sold to Drs. Foster and Smith. In 2001, Sanfilippo and Palko co-founded a Yahoo! Store design and programming firm called Solid Cactus. The company went on to become the largest developer of Yahoo! Stores in the country, having launched over 4,000 eCommerce stores for thousands of customers. In 2009, Solid Cactus was sold to Web.com [NASDAQ:WWWW] and continues to offer Yahoo! Store design and programming, search engine marketing and call center services.

The legal folks, who make much more money than I do, require I say, "the opinions expressed on this website are those of Scott Sanfilippo and do not necessarily reflect Web.com Group Inc's positions, strategies or opinions." Good day!